A Doctor's Curiosity
by Alex Conrad
Summary: The doctor wonders how Roses mum and dad got together being so different, and goes back in time to find out. However curiosity kills the doctor right? No, it just causes a glitch in time.


"They met at a discotheque. I'll always remember it was May 15th 1985. My mum says she was there dancing and drinking, like she did in those days and he walked in and asked her to dance…" Roses eyes gleamed as she remembered the story her mum had told her.

"And they danced and danced, and then—"

"Oi! It doesn't much matter does it? They met, they fell in love, good for them." The doctor interrupted, acting like he didn't much care. This was the farthest thing from the truth. He had a completely odd and unreasonable curiosity about Roses mum and dad. After seeing them in 1987 it seemed as if there were no possible way these two could ever had picked each other from all the other stupid apes in London. But it had happened and he wanted to know how.

"You're right, don't know why I'm rambling on at all. Bloody brilliant I am, yeah?"

"Doctor?" Rose entered the main part of the Tardis scanning it questioningly. He had been here just a moment before.

"Doctor?" she called again. There was a clanking sound from the other side of the main console and she started walking towards it.

"Doctor are you there?"

"Yeah Rose, I'm right here, what's the problem?" The Doctor's head popped up from a hole in the floor.

"I was just wonderin' whot you were up to, that's all." She paused, "What are you up to?" The doctor shook his head and then disappeared below the floor again. Rose sighed and dropped to her knees and then to her belly, sticking her head into the hole the doctor had disappeared into.

"Doctor?" Rose asked as her head dropped below the floor, her hair fell around her eyes and she pushed it away allowing her a view of the mechanics of the Tardis and the Doctor fidgeting with something a few feet away. He looked over at her and chuckled.

"well 'ello." He said. He loved it when her curiosity got the better of her. It was a trademark of Rose, one of the main reason he had even _thought_ about asking her to come with him. She asked so many questions.

"Alright then, what've we here?" Rose looked at him, but he didn't answer. Her curiosity sufficiently aroused, she dropped into the innards of the Tardis. "What's this then?" she asked taking a few strides towards him and then glaring down at the wires he had in his hands. He smiled.

"The time matrix is a sodding mess. I'm trying to repair it." His hands worked the wires deftly with his sonic screwdriver.

"And what does the time matrix do exactly?" Rose asked. The doctor threw Rose a sideways glance.

"It is what makes us travel through time, stupid ape." He said this last part with more fondness than irritation. She was the first stupid ape that he had ever truly enjoyed being around.

"Alright then, where are we now?" she asked, obviously wondering if she could go off and get herself into trouble while he was busy fixing the ship.

"Raxicoricophalibritorius." The Doctor replied smartly. Rose frowned at him.

"We are not!" she cried, smiling. The doctor flashed his amazing grin.

"Of course not, I just like saying it. We made a detour for you to see your mum and for me to fix the matrix. Your welcome, run along now and visit your mum." Rose grinned at him.

"Really?" she asked. The doctor nodded.

"Yep, now run along…I'm sure Mickey the idiot will be happy to see you as well." Rose rolled her eyes but turned back towards the hole.

"Thanks Doctor," She said as she reached up to grab hold of the sides of the floor above her.

"Oh and Rose?" the Doctor said dropping the wires in front of him, "If you come back and I'm not here, it's not because I left you but I'll need to test out these circuits, so I'll travel to another time to see if they work and then be back in a jiffy." Rose nodded.

"Alright," and then she was gone. The Doctor stopped the work he was supposedly doing and waited until he heard the door of the Tardis shut behind Rose. As soon as he heard the slam of the door he was up and out of the bowels of the Tardis working the knobs on the console in front of him.

There was nothing wrong with the matrix, the matrix never broke, it was impossible to break time itself. It was just a reason to get her off the ship, but not let her freak out about him leaving for a bit.

But why was he leaving? He asked himself, he wasn't leaving her for good, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him and he needed to satiate it. Ever since he'd left 1987 he'd been wondering about something and he just needed to understand it a little bit better.

All right, everything ready? He pushed a few more buttons and pulled a leaver and then he felt the Tardis shake and tumble through time. The clanking of the Tardis and the leveling out of the motion told him he had landed and he rushed to the door. He opened the door and peeked out.

1985. It smelled and looked just like 1987. Ah well, what was he expecting? He took a step out, shutting the door of the Tardis behind him.

He started walking for a nearby apartment building. It was Roses apartment building, well; it would be Roses apartment building.

The Doctor turned the corner and proceeded to run right into a pink clad figure.

"Oi!" a familiar voice called, "watch where your going mate!" The Doctor took a step back and glared cautiously at Jackie Tyler. She was a few pounds lighter and her hair was fluffier but not much had changed.

"Sorry," the Doctor said, even in the past this woman was the scariest mum he'd ever had to deal with, actually she was the only mum he'd ever had to deal with. He didn't do domestic, at least not before meeting Rose. Jackie shook her head angrily before moving past him and walking down the block. The Doctor watched her go and then headed straight back up to her apartment. He used his sonic screwdriver to get the door open and then after looking in each direction to make sure no neighbors were watching he slipped into the apartment.

It looked quite a bit different from both the 1987 apartment he had visited recently and the 2006 apartment he knew only too well. It was cleaner for one, and painted a nice shade of pale rose. The furniture was nice and there were houseplants everywhere. The doctor walked through the apartment wonderingly.

He stopped at a desk and looked through a phone book, coming almost immediately upon the name of Peter Alan Tyler. He scanned the phone number but committed the address to his mind. It was only a couple of blocks away. All right then. He put the things on the desk back and then he exited the apartment with a fierce determination to find Rose's dad.

He moved quickly through the streets of 1985 until he reached another smaller apartment building. It was darker and dirtier, but this was where Pete lived. He slowed as he approached, noticing a figure exiting an apartment. It was Peter Tyler.

Pete Tyler moved quickly down the street towards a nearby discothèque. He walked down the stairs below the neon sign and disappeared. The doctor followed, intensely curious as to how these two seemingly opposite people had met and fallen in love. He moved towards the discotheque, going down the stairs. He walked up to a door guarded by a large man. The man held up a hand as he moved to pass.

"You got a pass?" The man grumbled. The doctor frowned and then pulled out his psychic paper.

"What's that say?" He asked. The man straightened up instantly.

"Sorry sir!" the man said. The doctor nodded, looking down at the paper in his hand. Hmm…_Prince of Whales_.

"It's fine, now open the door." The man moved hastily and swung the door open allowing the doctor entrance. The doctor ducked through and moved down another set of stairs. It led down to a dance floor where a DJ was set up in the corner blaring disco music. Scanning the crowd he quickly picked out Jackie, with her pink outfit and large hair. He found Pete Tyler seconds after that, noticing that he was staring at Jackie from a barstool, where he was drinking a beer.

He watched as Pete stood up and walked over to Jackie who was talking with a few of her friend, a couple of which the Doctor recognized from 1987. Pete asked Jackie to dance and she accepted but with somewhat more reluctance than the Doctor had expected. He watched them dance one dance and then Jackie let Pete buy her a drink. The doctor moved over to the bar where they were sitting and took up a stool directly behind Pete.

"Yeah," Pete was saying, "I really like coming here too. It's close to my flat and it's got a nice… _ambiance_." The last word seemed wrong coming from Pete Tyler, like he wasn't used to using words that sounded so different from his usual slang. Jackie nodded but Pete was having a real hard time drawing her into conversation, although he was sure trying.

They finally decided to dance again. The doctor sat at the bar, arms crossed across his chest. He had expected something different, why was she so indifferent? It wasn't like Rose had described it. Suddenly a man stood up behind him.

"This is the last straw!" he grumbled in a low raspy voice, "This is the last time Jackie goes off and dances with another man right in front of me! She's gonna wish she hadn't dropped this boyfriend!" The man moved towards the dance floor, but the doctor caught his sleeve. The man whirled defensively as the Doctor stood from the stool.

"What?!" the man growled angrily. The Doctor nodded towards Jackie.

"What business you got with Jackie Tyler?" the Doctor asked, silently cursing himself for using her married name. Come to think of it, he didn't even know her maiden name. The man's face grew red.

"She's not with him, she was with me!" he growled, " and then she dumped me! And now she's gonna wish she hadn't!" The Doctor grabbed his arm as he turned back toward the dance floor, whipping the psychic paper from his pocket as he did so. This guy wasn't going to harm Rose's mum as long as he was around.

"What's that say?" The doctor asked shoving the paper in the man's face. His eyes suddenly grew wide and he backed up slowly.

"Please, I didn't mean to steal that telly, it was a friend o' mine, he told me the guy was giving it away…really, I—" The man mumbled on for a few more seconds.

"Oi! Shut up." The doctor growled, "I'm not going to arrest you, just leave Jackie alone, yeah?" The man nodded and then headed towards the exit. The doctor watched him go and then turned back in time to see Jackie leave Pete and walk back over to her friends. Pete's shoulders slumped and then he strode towards the exit.

Something was wrong. Rose said that they had danced and danced, that they had hit it off. What happened?

Maybe he'd messed up on the date. The Doctor made his way back to the Tardis after following Pete back to his flat to make sure that he didn't go back to the discotheque.

Entering the Tardis he realized suddenly that he missed Rose, but not enough to go back and get her. Plus, this was something he couldn't exactly explain to her. Yeah, I've got a strange fascination with your parents that borders on the obsessive? She'd think he'd gone nutters…which maybe he had.

Suddenly the phone on the Tardis rang. The doctor frowned reaching over to the receiver.

"'ello?" He asked.

"Doctor?" Roses voice rang out. He sighed, pleasantly surprised to hear her voice.

"Yup." He replied.

"Doctor where are you? What are you doing?" Roses voice was on the verge of hysterics. The doctor frowned.

"I haven't left you Rose, I'll be back in no time okay?"

"No doctor, you don't understand, something's happened here. My mums gone. Disappeared." The doctor's frown deepened and a knot formed in his stomach.

"What?"

"She's gone, I left the apartment for a few seconds and then went back in and everything was changed and some old lady was yelling at me for breaking and entering!"

"Rose, rose! Calm down, now look at your drivers license, now, pull it out an' look at it." He waited as she found her license, but was not surprised as she gasped when he found it.

"Its blank," she said. The doctor nodded. _Fantastic_.

"Alright Rose, just wait a minute, I'm coming to get you. I'll explain everything to you when I get there." The Doctor hung up the phone and then twisted some knobs and pulled some leavers on the console of the Tardis. Within a minute he was opening the door of the Tardis to see Rose's disturbed features.

"What's going on?!" She yelled entering the Tardis. "I don't bloody exist!" The Doctor shut the door and then walked up to her.

"Is it aliens?" she asked, "Are they trying to destroy my life to hurt you or something?" The Doctor frowned.

"Yeah, aliens have something to do with it." He said, rubbing his neck thoughtfully. Rose turned towards him.

"Really? Who? Not the Slitheen I hope, I don't like the Slitheen." The Doctor shook his head.

"Nope, it was _this_ alien." Rose looked up at him.

"What do you mean?" The Doctor sighed.

"I think you need to explain that story about how your parents met to me one more time, from the beginning, yeah?" Rose looked at him questioningly.

"Why?" She asked. The doctor sighed again.

"Just tell me, then I'll explain all." Rose nodded.

"Alright, but I don't see what this has to do with anything."

"You'll understand in a minute, now just tell me." The Doctor leaned up against the railing of the Tardis and listened intently as Rose repeated the story of how her parents met.

"They met at a discotheque. I'll always remember it was May 15th 1980. My mum says she was there dancing and drinking, like she did in those days and he walked in and asked her to dance. They danced and danced and then one of mums old boyfriends came up trying to pick a fight with dad." Rose paused as the doctor groaned, but continued after a second, "Anyway, Dad would have none of it and told the man where he could stick it. Well the man didn't take this very well. He shoved dad, but dad had taken boxing in school and in no time flat that man was on the floor. It was one of the only times he ever got angry enough to hurt someone, my mum said. Anyway, before this happened she wasn't too big on him, but after she saw how much he cared for her, she was smitten and agreed to date 'im. Lovely story, yeah?" She finished, "Now it's your turn." The doctor sighed.

"All right, remember last week when you were telling me about how your mum and dad met? Okay, I was a little more interested then I let on. So I went back in time to see it for myself, but unknowingly I stopped that guy from trying to beat up your dad and I caused a glitch in time." He folded his arms across his chest and watched as Rose glared at him unbelievingly.

"What?" she asked, "You went back in time and…Where's my mum then? Are you telling me she doesn't exist because you screwed up her life?"

"I'm not sure, more than likely she's just living out her life somewhere else. After not meeting your dad she made different choices and lived a completely different life. As did your dad." Rose's eyes grew wide.

"That means…that means they never had me! That I don't exist!" The Doctor nodded.

"Uh…yeah. Thus the empty license, sorry about that." Rose glared up at him.

"How is that even possible? I'm here, I exist! How does that happen if I was never born?" The doctor jumped up and ran to the console of the Tardis.

"Long story, but the short of it is that you're already a being and even though time can have a glitch it cannot destroy things already made, like yourself. So technically your still a person, you just don't exist…technically." Rose glared at him some more as he pushed a large button on the Tardis.

"But no worries," he said turning towards her with a grin, "I can fix it." The Tardis started to shake and Rose reached out stabilizing herself by holding onto a railing. Soon the shaking stopped and Rose looked up at the Doctor.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"May 15th 1985." He replied, moving towards the door. He opened it and allowed Rose to exit.

"I don't like this Doctor. Remember last time…" Rose said as they started off down the street.

"That was 1987, this is 1985, and you're not even alive yet. And you won't be if you don't do what I tell you." He replied as he turned a corner.

"What exactly do I need to do then?" She asked. The Doctor stopped and Rose did the same.

"Look," Rose exclaimed, "Its you, talking to my mum!" She said. The Doctor nodded.

"Yup, I talk to her for a few more minutes and then I head up to her apartment. Then I go to your dads place, then I go to the discotheque where they met, that's where the trouble starts." The Doctor and Rose followed the previous Doctor around until he reached Pete Tyler's apartment. Then they took off for the club.

Using the psychic paper they got into the club before Pete or the previous Doctor and snagged a table where the Doctor knew they could see both the previous him and the future Mr. and Mrs. Tyler. Jackie was already there and Rose just about had a conniption seeing the outfit she wore, which she said was ten times worse than the one in 1987. After about ten minutes Pete Tyler showed up and strode to the bar. The Doctor noticed Roses face light up when she saw him. He knew that this must be hard for her to see, since she knew he died in just a few years. He cursed himself for making her go through this.

A moment after Pete Tyler showed up, the previous Doctor arrived and walked over to the bar. Rose and him watched the other Doctor watch Jackie and Pete. It was weird watching himself, but he'd done it before. Rose was enjoying it, although he could practically see the questions running through her mind.

"Alright Rose," The Doctor said, "Here's what's going to happen, after they finish this song, they go to the bar for a drink. Then they get up to dance again. At that point the man sitting next to me over there is going to get up and I'm going to stop him. You have to go stop me from stopping him and before you ask, no I can't do it because I'd rather not repeat the events of 1987 and start another paradox." Rose nodded.

"What do you want me to do?" The Doctor shrugged.

"How'm I supposed to know, go…be yourself and get me to follow you home or something." Rose laughed but started towards the previous him as soon as her mum and dad had left the bar.

As he watched, the man next to the previous him got up and started for Jackie, but before the previous him could stop the man, Rose had walked up to him and kissed the previous him full on the mouth. The Doctor stood watching in shock. The previous him was obviously enjoying this, but then Rose pulled away whispered something in his ear and then strode back towards him.

"There. Done. Let's go." She said starting up the stairs towards the exit. The previous him, had gone back to watching the Tyler's, like nothing strange had even happened. The Doctor turned to watch as well and everything happened just like Rose said it would. The man went up to Pete, who promptly knocked him out, Jackie flipped out and fell in love and then they went back to dancing. As soon as he was sure that the glitch was gone the Doctor made his way back to Tardis to find Rose waiting outside for him.

"'Ello." She said, "Time sorted out again?" he nodded, but found it hard to concentrate on what she was saying to him.

"You kissed me." He said without thinking. She laughed.

"Yes I did." He stared at her for a moment, before shaking his head and pulling out his key.

"Yeah," he said unlocking the Tardis and letting her through. They entered the ship and he closed the door behind them.

"What now?" he asked. She smiled and took his hand.

"My mum said she was makin' shepherds pie, so that means you get to come home for dinner!" she pulled him into the Tardis, "An' you can't say no, because you owe me." The Doctor groaned as she wagged a finger in his direction.

"I thought I explained that I don't do domestic." He said turning the knobs and pulling the leavers on his Tardis.

"You did, but you'll 'ave to make an exception." He groaned again, but didn't say anything. They landed back in the present and as they were walking out of the Tardis he remembered something he wanted to ask her.

"Rose?" He said grabbing her hand as they walked towards her mum's apartment. "What did you whisper in the other me's ear?" She smiled.

"That in the future he shouldn't act like such a stupid ape. You still need to explain why you went back in the first place, yeah?" She said glancing up at him.

"Uh…well, I've always found stupid little ape relationships to be interesting and when I met your parents and realized how completely different they were, I just wanted to know how two people like them come together and fall in love. That's it, simple really, yet completely fantastic." Rose smiled.

"Yeah, it's kinda like us." He looked down at her fondly and flashed her a grin again, taking her hand in his.

"Yeah…Fantastic."


End file.
